Let me try that again-"Formal usage of the word 'Doña' was in English writing in the 17th c. before immigrants to America were looking much beyond the piedmont."

**

Here's a dictionary entry for the word "dun":


dun (dun)
adjective
dull grayish-brown

Etymology: ME & OE, akin to OS, chestnut-brown, ult. (? via Celt) < IE *dhus-no < base *dhus, dust-colored: see fury

noun:
a dun horse
an artificial fishing fly of this color
mayfly

http://www.yourdictionary.com/dun

**

If I had read this thread more carefully, I would have learned this from Art Thieme's 22 Dec 02 - 10:32 PM post:

"I had heard that this was a term for his horse. His horse was a "dun" color-----a sandy almost washed out brown. As in the song "The Zebra Dun"."

-snip-

Instead, I admit that I erroneously relied on this comment from GUEST,YT1300:

"I love both country blues and old time music and just adopted a dog tonight from a rescue shelter. She's a 2ish year old beautiful black lab female. The obvious name? Doney."

-snip-

But now I know the meaning of the word "dun". And if "dun" had no connection to the any origin/meaning of word "dony"/"doney", that just proves the point that I was trying to make-that words that are spelled the same or similarly don't necessarily have the same etymology.

Thanks, Q for correcting my mistatement.